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Song of Suwari: Ode to West African Scholars

Although some contemporary historians may argue otherwise, in the past, particularly in places such as West Africa, Muslims and non-Muslims lived together in relative harmony and prosperity. The positive impact of the spread of Islam on West Africa, in particular on Mali, was noticeable to explorers.

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Timbuktu seen from a distance by Heinrich Barth’s party, 1853 (Source)

Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller who is renowned as one of the greatest travellers of premodern times in the 8th century H/14th century CE, for example said in his Rihla (voyage journal):

the[re was] security embracing the whole country, so that neither traveller there nor dweller has anything to fear from a thief or usurper[1].”

This peace and tolerance could be said largely due to scholars such as al-Haj Salim Suwari. Their teachings and practice in Mali as well as other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa that were under Muslim administration, saw the rise and continuation of scholarship in both the natural and religious sciences. Al-Haj Salim Suwari later became a renowned jurist and teacher[2].

In the poem below, Natty Mark Samuels, founder of African School, a Cultural Education project based in Oxford, highlights some of these themes: